Pain Relief

Generally in writing this I err on the side of disclosure, good and bad. I figure most everyone can handle it, and it's better to share the truth than to just say "everything's OK". That being said...

At the hospital

• Today was an OK day on paper, but a bad day if you have ovarian cancer. Rachel's labs looked OK after her dialysis yesterday, and she got dialysis again today. There was no bad news on the infection front, or her chest X-ray, or any other tests.
• The weaning from sedation/pain meds isn't working: her only two modes today were "unconscious" and "apparent agony". I don't use that word lightly -- when she was awake her face was beet-red and contorted, she squirmed in her bed, gripped her bedrails (or a visitor's hand) tightly, and bit down so hard on her ventilator tubing that the pressure alarm went off on the machine. The staff is no more immune to this than you or I would be; they put her back on the continuous sedative (Ativan), and upped her pain med (also switching back to Dilaudid from morphine). The physical benefits of coming off of sedation are heavily outweighed right now by the need for pain relief. She was resting when I left this evening.

At home

• The kids picked up pet supplies with Aunt Kathy today, including a new fish tank. They'll populate it this weekend once it's equilibrated -- Conor has an interest in some expensive fish, but he's going to learn about the "Abe Lincoln" limit.
• Emmet went with his friend Lanie and her family tonight to Cirque du Soleil. The rest of us are watching even more Olympics.

Pat